Notebook: Vargas-Smith rescheduled for undercard of Taylor-Serrano showdown
Thurman-Barrios card changes; Makabu plans to KO Canelo; Bryan-Dubois mandatory ordered; Conceicao seeks Valdez rematch; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Jessie Vargas has recovered from his bout with Covid-19 and his postponed junior middleweight fight with Liam Smith has been rescheduled.
They will meet in a 12-rounder on the undercard of the women’s super fight between undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor and seven-division titleholder Amanda Serrano on April 30 (DAZN) at Madison Square Garden in New York, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced on Tuesday.
Vargas (29-3-2, 11 KOs), 32, of Las Vegas, a former junior welterweight and welterweight titlist, and former junior middleweight titleholder Smith (30-3-1, 17 KOs), 33, of England, were initially supposed to headline a Matchroom card on DAZN on Feb. 5 in Phoenix but the bout was postponed on Jan. 17 when Vargas tested positive for Covid-19.
The fight will be Vargas’ first since a competitive decision loss to Mikey Garcia at welterweight in February 2020.
“Thankfully, I’m now through Covid,” said Vargas, who is also running for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District. “I want to show everyone I’m better than before. I’ve been working on things in the gym, so it’s not like I’ve had a two-year layoff.
“Liam is talking a lot. The fire is burning inside me. You don’t trash talk me. I’m coming in a different person. This will be an action-packed fight. I’ll exploit all of his weaknesses and take him out. My goal is to knock him out and retire him. It’s going to be an amazing night. Amanda and Katie are trailblazers for the sport, and I’m honored to be a part of an historic event in New York.”
Smith is coming off an impressive eighth-round knockout of Liverpool rival Anthony Fowler in October and excited to box in the United States for the fourth time but for the first time in New York.
“I’m buzzing and proud to be fighting at Madison Square Garden,” Smith said. “It’s one I can tick off my bucket list now along with Las Vegas. MSG is the pinnacle of boxing and everything happens for a reason, so I am happy to be heading to New York on April 30. The main event is fantastic. Katie is always in exciting fights, and I am sure there will be lots of British and Irish fans there that will be backing me too.
“This fight is an itch that has needed scratching for a long time now and I want to beat Jessie and beat him well and move on. I hope that he turns up fit and healthy this time as I am aiming to retire him and send him into politics. He wants to move into politics, and I will give him a reason to concentrate on that 100 percent.
“Jessie stopping me? I find that highly unlikely when only one person has done that and Jessie is no Canelo Alvarez. I fully intend on stopping him, being the first man to do it and adding my name to the names that have beaten him.”
Also added to the card on Tuesday was the undisputed women’s super middleweight title bout between WBC/WBO titlist Franchon Crews-Dezurn (7-1, 2 KOs), 34, of Baltimore, and IBF/WBA titleholder Elin Cederroos (8-0, 4 KOs), 37, of Sweden, who has not fought since January 2020. The bout has been made for ages but was twice postponed from last June and September.
Thurman-Barrios changes
An undisclosed injury to welterweight Josesito Lopez has knocked him out of his 10-round bout with Abel Ramos, which was due to be part of the Fox Sports pay-per-view undercard of the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios welterweight fight on Saturday (9 p.m., $74.99) at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Premier Boxing Champions announced that Ramos (27-4-2, 21 KOs), 30, Casa Grande, Arizona, will instead face replacement Lucas Santamaría (12-2-1, 7 KOs), 24, of Garden Grove, California, who had been on standby in case he was needed. However, instead of being on the pay-per-view broadcast, Ramos-Santamaria will instead be part of the Fox network’s broadcast of preliminary bouts from 7 p.m. ET to 9 p.m. ET.
The other bout slated for the Fox portion of the card will pit junior welterweights Ryan “Cowboy” Karl (19-3, 12 KOs), 30, of Milano, Texas, and Omar Juarez (12-1, 5 KOs), 22, of Brownsville, Texas, in a 10-rounder.
Added to the pay-per-view to take the place of Lopez-Ramos is a 10-round junior middleweight fight between 20-year-old Casa Grande, Arizona, southpaw Jesus Ramos (17-0, 14 KOs), Abel Ramos’ nephew, and Vladimir Hernandez (13-4, 6 KOs), 32, a Mexico native fighting out of Stockton, California.
The pay-per-view also includes featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs) in a 10-round nontitle bout against Keenan Carbajal (23-2-1, 15 KOs) in the co-feature and former two-division titlist Luis Nery (31-1, 24 KOs) against Carlos Castro (27-0, 12 KOs) in the 10-round junior featherweight opener.
The non-televised portion of the card includes the sons of former two-time junior middleweight titlist Fernando Vargas — middleweight Fernando Vargas Jr. (4-0, 4 KOs) and featherweight Amado Vargas (3-0, 2 KOs) — in four-rounders.
iFL TV appearance
I joined my friends at iFL TV to discuss the record-setting $41,025,000 purse bid made by promoter Frank Warren to secure the rights for the fight between heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and interim titlist and mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte. We discussed several aspects of the bid, the prospect of the winner facing the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch for the undisputed title and more. Please watch that video here:
Makabu still wants Canelo
After Ilunga Makabu (29-2, 25 KOs), 34, of Congo, edged fellow southpaw Thabiso Mchunu (23-6, 13 KOs), 33, of South Africa, by disputed split decision in a rematch of a 2015 knockout win — 116-112, 115-113 Makabu, 115-113 Mchunu — to retain his WBC cruiserweight title for the second time on a Don King-promoted card Saturday night at the W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren, Ohio, he reiterated his desire to next defend against undisputed super middleweight champion and pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez.
“I didn’t come for the knockout,” said Makabu, who was boxing in the United States for the first time. “I just came to show that I can box. I am going to box and knock Canelo out in my next fight, baby.”
Eddy Reynoso, Alvarez’s trainer and manager, asked the WBC at its convention in November if it would grant Alvarez permission to challenge Makabu for his 200-pound title and it was approved. Alvarez, who would be going for a title in a fifth weight class if he challenges Makabu, is weighing options for his next fight, which he hopes is in May. Makabu is one of the possibilities, along with others such as middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs), who would move up in weight, and light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs). Alvarez is a promotional and broadcast free agent and listening to offers from suitors.
Bryan-Dubois ordered
Trevor Bryan (22-0, 15 KOs), 32, a Schenectady, New York, native retained his WBA “regular” heavyweight belt for the first time by split decision in a spirited scrap with Jonathan Guidry (17-1-2), 32, of Houma, Louisiana, whom he dropped in the 11th round, on Saturday night on the Ilunga Makabu-Thabiso Mchunu undercard in Warren, Ohio. The judges had it 118-109, 116-111 Bryan and 115-112 Guidry.
After the fight, Bryan called out the likes of Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, but he has no shot of facing any of them because on Monday, the WBA, as expected, issued a letter to those involved, a copy of which was obtained by Fight Freaks Unite, and ordered Bryan to face mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois (17-1, 16 KOs), 24, of England, within 180 days from Jan. 29. Dubois was stripped of his interim belt when the WBA terminated all interim title recognition in August and placed those fighters in mandatory positions or ordered eliminators.
The letter also ordered heavyweight Robert Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs), 38, of Finland, and Hughie Fury (26-3, 15 KOs), 27, of England, to meet in a title elimination fight on a date no later than 180 days from Jan. 29.
Conceicao wants Valdez again
After junior lightweight contender Robson Conceicao (17-1, 8 KOs) easily outboxed Xavier Martinez (17-1, 11 KOs) in the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he called for rematch with WBC titlist Oscar Valdez.
“I learned a lot from that Oscar Valdez loss, and that’s why I was able to dedicate myself,” Conceicao said through an interpreter. “I wasn’t discouraged by what happened that evening. I know who I am, and I knew if I put in the work, I could have this type of performance. But my mind is set on Valdez, and I definitely want that shot.”
Conceicao, who beat Martinez, 24, of Sacramento, California, 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92, suffered his first defeat in his previous fight when Valdez won a disputed decision to retain the 130-pound belt on Sept. 10 in a fight mired in controversy because Valdez was permitted to fight despite a positive drug test.
“To be honest, I think Xavier Martinez punches harder than Oscar Valdez,” said Conceicao, 33, a 2016 Brazilian Olympic gold medalist, who defeated Valdez in the amateur ranks. “I felt his punches, but I know this is the type of fight I needed to prepare myself because I’m a world champion level fighter. And I definitely want Oscar Valdez.”
If Conceicao is to get a rematch, it certainly won’t be next. Valdez is finalizing a deal to face Shakur Stevenson in a title unification fight on April 30.
In one of the undercard bouts, middleweight Nico Ali Walsh (4-0, 3 KOs), 21, of Las Vegas, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, returned to the venue where he made his pro debut in August and knocked out Jeremiah Yeager (1-2-1, 1 KO), 31, of Erie, Pennsylvania, in the second round, knocking him down for the first time with a right-left combination. Just before the second knockdown, Ali Walsh broke out his grandfather’s famed “Ali Shuffle” before finishing Yeager with a left hook.
“I didn’t plan (the Ali Shuffle),” said Ali Walsh, who was in his first fight with former assistant trainer Richard Slone as his head trainer after parting ways with SugarHill Steward. “It was emotional, of course. So much has been going on, but yeah, I didn’t plan on doing that. It’s just something that happened.”
Quick hits
Heavyweight contender Otto Wallin is a late addition to the undercard of the Chris Eubank Jr.-Liam Williams fight on Saturday in Cardiff, Wales. Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs), whose lone defeat came by competitive decision to heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in 2019, will face Kamil Sokolowski (11-24-2, 4 KOs), 35, of Poland, in an eight-rounder. The tune-up fight will be Wallin’s first in one year since he handily outpointed former title challenger Dominic Breazeale last February. “Otto would like to fight four times this year,” manager Zach Levin told Fight Freaks Unite. “Three is more realistic but that is his wish. 2021 was very frustrating. Just one fight.”
Two more heavyweights have passed on a chance for an IBF title eliminator against Filip Hrgovic for the right to become a mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk. Injured Murat Gassiev, a former unified cruiserweight titlist, and former unified heavyweight titlist Andy Ruiz Jr., both let pass a Friday deadline without accepting a spot in the eliminator. Previously, Luis Ortiz, Joseph Parker, Tony Yoka, Joe Joyce and Agit Kabayel all turned it down for various reasons, some due to injury, some unavailability and some for no specific reason. Next up with a chance to face 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs), 29, of Croatia, are a pair of Matchroom Boxing-promoted southpaws as the IBF will next move to Australia’s Demsey McKean (20-0, 13 KOs), 31, and Zhang Zhilei (23-0-1, 18 KOs), 38, of China, to see if they will participate. McKean, the higher-rated fighter, would have first dibs if he and Zhilei both accept.
The Japanese Boxing Commission in conjunction with the Tokyo Athletic Writers Club has handed out its 2021 awards with unified bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue picked as boxer of the year. It is the fifth time Inoue has received the honor. Among other awards, Masamichi Yabuki’s upset of Kenshiro Teraji to win the WBC junior flyweight title was picked as Japanese fight of the year. The awards ceremony, however, will not take place due to the spread of Covid-19.
There has been an executive shakeup at Golden Boy Promotions. Last week, David Tetreault, who was made an equity partner in the company and promoted to chief business officer in late July but had been on the chopping block, recently quit and has been hired by Triller, sources told Fight Freaks Unite. His responsibilities at Golden Boy included TV and streaming licensing deals, media, entertainment, marketing, communications, corporate development, sponsorships and co-managing all financial aspects of the company. He had been with Golden Boy since 2015. A replacement has been hired but not announced yet, one of the sources said.
Although Top Rank is still figuring out which fighters will go on the cards, the company said it has added linear ESPN-televised cards to its schedule on March 26 and April 9 to take place at sites to be determined.
Show and tell
In the end, Juan Manuel Marquez became one of the greatest Mexican fighters ever, was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, won world titles in four weight classes from featherweight to junior welterweight, and faced a who’s who of his era, including an all-time legendary four-fight series with Manny Pacquiao that ended with Marquez knocking Pacquiao out cold face first in 2012 in the 2010s fight of the decade. But before all of those accomplishments there was much frustration for Marquez, who was blatantly ducked by top featherweights, including by Prince Naseem Hamed when he was Hamed’s longstanding mandatory challenger.
Finally, Marquez got the opportunity to fight for the vacant IBF belt against countryman Manuel Medina, a longtime veteran contender. Marquez dropped Medina in the second and seventh rounds and stopped him later in the seventh round to win his first world title at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in the main event of a Top Rank pay-per-view card. That fight was on Feb. 1, 2003 — 19 years ago on Tuesday. Here is an incredibly rare poster from the fight in my collection. The poster was produced to advertise Carlos Hernandez’s co-featured fight for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title against David Santos to Hernandez’s Salvadorian community in Southern California.
Alvarez-Makabu photo: WBC; Bryan-Guidry photo: David Martin-Warr/Don King Productions; Conceicao photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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I watched the Makabu vs Mchunu rematch on YouTube the other day and I thought Makabu was a bit fortunate to get the points win - it was a close fight though.
Makabu's performance strengthened how I already felt about him based on some of his prior defences against fairly weak challengers and makes it obvious why Reynoso wants Canelo to fight him in order to make the ginga ninja a 5 weight world champion.
IMO Makabu is strong and has a powerful punch however his punch accuracy is poor and his footwork and hand speed are glacial compared to any of the 3 other "world champions" - consequently the chances of him landing flush on Canelo is pretty unlikely.
I can see Canelo out-boxing Makabu from the outside early on and either coasting to a points win or possibly stopping Makabu late on if/when he gases. Consequently I'm expecting Canelo vs Makabu in May.
D$, I know politics play their part but I didn't see that much from Hrgovic to warrant all these HWs avoiding him. How about you?